 March 30, 2020 - 2:44pm | I have had my 3D printer going while I am working from home so I have been searching Thingiverse for things. Printing Studio Ghibili themed cookie cutters to entertain the kids with baking after the day of school from home is done. Anyway, I ran across models for a Mars Base that you can 3D print and build your own colony. This got me thinking that the way to do a cool dungeon crawl for Star Frontiers would be to have a cold jovian moon with a base on it the the PCs can delve into and raid for loot and monster skulls. Yes this has been talked about here before I believe. I'd like to talk about the setting of where and why such an abandoned complex exists. Another version is the tetrach ruins but I'm thinking this is old core four stuff with native creatures (monsters) running about. Maybe wierd stuff like Alen Dean Foster's Prisim where the life is all silicon based and everything is raw materials to eat. Maybe this is an ice world like a jovian moon and the creatures are methane breathers. Or maybe this is a scorching inner planet with no atmosphere and the colony on the day night terminator of the tidally locked planet. What ever it is there are above ground structures and post colony drop there are below ground tunnels. So... Where is this space dungeon? Why is it here? -iggy |
 March 31, 2020 - 8:19am | interesting that you bring this up but I just learned that: In the original treatment for Starship Troopers movie pitch the title was Bughunt on Outpost 9 Now I want to create an adventure called Bughunt on Outpost 9 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 31, 2020 - 3:11pm | I tend to think lairs as the best dungeon. Some great and powerful guy of old had his lair and stocked it with all his treasures and put traps and protections on them. Then for some reason he dissapeared or was defeated and now all the bad creatures take up residence and catch the unwarry adventurers who seek the mythical treasures. So, this thought screams evil mad scientist who made an outpost on some world and they meet with disaster. Now the rumers start flying that there was some great discovery lost at the outpost that can be recovered. You can claim the discovery or invention if you can get past whatever doomed the outpost. Or, there was some valuable resource at this remote location that was worth gambiling fortunes and lives to get. They succeed and make it rich but one day the colony just stops talking. Investors and freight haulers check on the colony and disappear too. Now the word is out that it is too dangerous to go back and stories from survivors are that the place is a nightmare with all personel dead, facilities wrecked, and the recources lost. But, there is still a horde locked away for whomever dares to claim it. Everry so often a group tries and is lost. or,..... What other angles can this go? -iggy |
March 31, 2020 - 9:29pm | 1. Call the mad scientist angle: "The Island of Dr. Moreau" Disney's "The Black Hole" "Frankenstien" and "Ravenloft" This predicates the mad scientist as being on hand and effectively is the Big Bad or at least has the big bad close by 2. Mad scientist lair and its vacated- potentially ancient but treasure and "monsters" left behind. To a certain degree I feel that some of the AVP and Aliens movies fit this- AVP with aztec pyramid under ice at Antartica- Alien queen and alien xenomorphs left behind. 3. Mining and miners disturb things man aught not to have disturbed- "Event Horizon" The movie Aliens where the company directed the colonist to check out location of alien crashed ship. Stolen form John Ross: 4. Any port in the storm: PCs are seeking shelter from elements or other threats and come across a place to hole up. They discover something dangerous, secret or supernatural and must deal with it to obtain a little rest. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 2, 2020 - 3:58am | I have a megadungeon in the works, of sorts. It's situated on a planet which has a surface completely covered by ice, with occasional mountains. Below the ice, there is a huge planet-wide sea - although perhaps soup is a better analogy - of chemicals under high pressure and high temperature, fed by the planet's vulcanism. There are 6 or so mobile platforms on the planet. They resemble a cross between and oil rig and the crawler transporter that was used to move the space shuttles into place - only much bigger. They're almost small towns, and have landing platforms for specialised ships which dock and take on the refined contents from 'mining' - 'mining' in this sense being that the platforms use a powerful laser to 'drill' into the ice, extract the soup at high pressure, and refine out the various chemicals they want to export. The story revolves around a bunch of alien 'pirates' who've captured one of these huge machines. The players have to get inside the rig and explore it to find out where the pirates are and neutralise them. The rig itself is crewed by what look like octopoid robots, but these are actually a form of alien life that use exoskeletal suits to live on the planet. They come from elsewhere. They're grouped into various cadres, some being very intelligent whilst others are more like trained dogs. There's also a sprinkling of crew from various other worlds. |
 October 13, 2020 - 2:47pm | I have a megadungeon in the works, of sorts. It's situated on a planet which has a surface completely covered by ice, with occasional mountains. Below the ice, there is a huge planet-wide sea - although perhaps soup is a better analogy - of chemicals under high pressure and high temperature, fed by the planet's vulcanism. There are 6 or so mobile platforms on the planet. They resemble a cross between and oil rig and the crawler transporter that was used to move the space shuttles into place - only much bigger. They're almost small towns, and have landing platforms for specialised ships which dock and take on the refined contents from 'mining' - 'mining' in this sense being that the platforms use a powerful laser to 'drill' into the ice, extract the soup at high pressure, and refine out the various chemicals they want to export. The story revolves around a bunch of alien 'pirates' who've captured one of these huge machines. The players have to get inside the rig and explore it to find out where the pirates are and neutralise them. The rig itself is crewed by what look like octopoid robots, but these are actually a form of alien life that use exoskeletal suits to live on the planet. They come from elsewhere. They're grouped into various cadres, some being very intelligent whilst others are more like trained dogs. There's also a sprinkling of crew from various other worlds. Neat Joe Cabadas |
